New heat and severe weather warnings: Meteorologist sees "worrying" development
Created: 07/21/2022, 12:46 p.m
By: Momir Takac, Magdalena Furthauer
After the hottest day of the year, parts of Germany are threatened by violent thunderstorms.
The DWD issued severe weather and heat warnings on Thursday.
New severe weather and heat warnings for parts of Germany: gusts of wind and heavy rain possible.
Dead in bad weather in Baden-Württemberg: heat returns after a short cool down.
Cracking finale
: According to the DWD forecast, lightning and thunder will end the hottest day of 2022 so far
This
news ticker about the weather in Germany
is constantly updated.
Update from July 21, 11:10 a.m .:
In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, low “Carolin” brought thunderstorms, especially in the west and south-west of Germany.
According to meteorologist Paul Heger, the storms are likely to shift further during the day.
"On Thursday, the thunderstorm will be circling over the northwest," Heger is quoted as saying on
wetter.de
.
Heat in Germany: DWD issues severe weather and heat warnings
According to weather models, up to 100 liters of rain per square meter could fall “in the core area from NRW to western Lower Saxony”.
Heger spoke of a "worrying" development.
Because there is a lot of precipitation on parched ground within a short period of time, the risk of flooding increases.
Meanwhile, the German Weather Service (DWD) has issued official heat and severe weather warnings for Thursday.
According to the DWD, a heat warning applies in the east for a strip from Greifswald down to Dresden.
Because it didn't cool down properly during the night, additional heat stress is also to be expected in Berlin.
The same applies to the southwest in the Offenburg, Freiburg, Lörrach, Waldshut and Constance area.
Lightning discharges over a residential building during a thunderstorm.
© picture alliance/dpa |
Karl Josef Hildenbrand
New thunderstorms are approaching from the southwest.
The DWD warns of gusts of wind with speeds of up to 70 km/h and heavy rain with rainfall of around 20 l/m² per hour.
There can also be hail.
There could be severe thunderstorms in eastern Bavaria in the Cham/Weiden/Schwandorf area.
There are also official warnings of severe thunderstorms around Northeim in Lower Saxony and in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Here it could hit the Lippstadt/Gütersloh/Warendorf area.
Olpe and Siegen could also be in trouble.
After the heat, storms follow in Germany: a man dies on the Autobahn
Update from July 21, 9:29 a.m .:
The hottest day of the year so far – the thermometer rose to more than 40 degrees Celsius at four measuring stations in Germany on Wednesday – was followed by thunderstorms in the night on Thursday, especially in the south and west and severe weather.
One person even died in the Kraichgau (Baden-Württemberg).
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On the A6 in the direction of Nuremberg, a driver crashed into the central barrier due to aquaplaning.
After he got out just after Bad Rappenau to set up a warning triangle, he was hit by a following vehicle.
This car had also skidded.
The 58-year-old died at the scene of the accident.
A man was killed during a storm on the A6.
© picture alliance/dpa/Einsatz-Report24 |
Deployment Report24
Also in Baden-Württemberg, a lightning strike set a house on fire in the Allgäu.
The damage to the building is estimated at 1.5 million euros.
While it cools down a bit after the heat in Germany on Thursday, the high temperatures will soon return.
Germany is not really out of the heat, said an expert from the German Weather Service (DWD) with a view to the coming days.
It could get hotter again at the weekend and at the beginning of next week.
Heat in Germany: Wednesday at a glance
Update from July 20, 10:30 p.m.:
Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at a glance: Despite the forecast nightly rain, it will remain far too dry overall, according to the DWD.
In addition to breaking various heat records, forest fires broke out in several parts of Germany during the day;
near Sundern in Sauerland, for example, an area of more than 30,000 square meters burned.
Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) warned in view of the drought that "even the smallest spark in the forest and fields can lead to a fire with potentially devastating consequences".
However, a purchase of firefighting aircraft is not planned, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior at the request of the dpa and referred to the responsibility of the federal states and municipalities for disaster and fire protection.
The federal government can only provide temporary support with its resources by way of administrative assistance where the forces of the federal states and municipalities are not sufficient - for example with helicopters from the federal police and the armed forces.
The latter meanwhile organized the ceremony for 400 soldiers in Berlin's Bendler Block, during which they vowed to commit themselves "to the values of the Basic Law, to democracy and to loyal service", according to Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD).
However, 28 recruits suffered circulatory problems during the event, as the Ministry of Defense wrote on Twitter in the evening.
"All those affected are now back with their relatives - we are very happy about that!" The soldiers were treated immediately on site, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
Three of them were also taken to the Bundeswehr hospital for treatment as a precaution.
Recruits take their vows on the anniversary of the German Resistance on July 20.
© IMAGO / Mike Schmidt
Extreme temperatures in the Federal Republic: Experts call for heat protection plans for German cities
Update from July 20, 9:36 p.m .:
In view of the current weather conditions, the potential dangers of prolonged heat are also the focus of political discussion.
The current focus is on the question: is a heat protection plan needed?
"National guidelines can help us get a bit of a tempo in development," said the chairwoman of the Marburger Bund medical association, Susanne Johna, on Wednesday, July 22, 2022, to
Deutschlandfunk
.
It is not about dictating things to the municipalities.
Rather, the municipalities should be able to develop their own plans based on nationwide specifications.
You have to "think across cities," says Johna, who pleaded for more greening of cities.
This requirement correlates with the expertise of ARD meteorologist Sven Plöger, who told the
Rheinische Post
that cities in summer hot weather often had an average temperature of nine degrees Celsius more than the rural surroundings.
"We need more green and blue in the cities, i.e. more plants and water to create more evaporation cooling," says the weatherman.
The increasing sealing of the soil favors the "incredible overheating".
The German Association of Cities is fundamentally in favor of heat protection measures, such as those recently demanded by the President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt;
some municipalities have already published heat action plans, others are preparing them, said the deputy general manager Verena Göppert of the
Rheinische Post
.
However, heat protection, for example through more shady trees, is also expensive, which is why the city day calls for fixed budgets for municipalities for at least ten years.
Heat in Germany: Heat thunderstorms close the record day - one of the hottest in history
Update from July 20, 8:15 p.m
.: According to preliminary information, the heat on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, exceeded the highest temperature values since weather records began in six federal states.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), which reported a number of heat records, it was the hottest day of 2022 to date and one of the hottest ever.
DWD spokesman Andreas Friedrich emphasized in an interview with
dpa
on Tuesday evening that the values are provisional.
In the evening, the numbers would no longer be updated, they would be checked in the coming days and, if necessary, clarifications would be made after a few days.
Here is an overview of the (provisional) new heat records for Germany:
Highest temperature in Germany today: Bad Mergentheim-Neunkirchen
I
3.30 p.m.
I
40.3 degrees Celsius
Record Baden-Württemberg: Bad Mergentheim-Neunkirchen
I
40.3 degrees Celsius
Record Hamburg: Hamburg-Neuwiedenthal
I
40.1 degrees Celsius
Record Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Boizenburg
I
39.4 degrees Celsius
Lower Saxony record: Barsinghausen-Hohenbostel
I
40.0 degrees Celsius
Record Saxony-Anhalt: Huy-Pabstorf
I
40.0 degrees Celsius
Record Schleswig-Hollstein: Grambek
I
39.1 degrees Celsius
This is also the tenth time that temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius have been measured in one day in Germany since records began - this was last on July 25, 2019, but at that time at all 22 DWD weather stations.
July 25, 2019 also remains the nationwide heat record day: According to the DWD, 41.2 degrees Celsius were measured at the North Rhine-Westphalian stations in Duisburg and Tönisvorst on the Lower Rhine near Krefeld.
Heat in Germany: extreme weather breaks dozens of records – in the evening there is thunder and lightning
Update from July 20, 6:45 p.m .:
The German Weather Service (DWD) warns of local violent thunderstorms with heavy rain in Baden-Württemberg on Wednesday evening.
The thunderstorm front is moving from the southwest to the northeast, a spokesman said.
In some places, a lot of lightning and 60 liters of rain per hour and square meter can be expected.
Hailstones up to three centimeters in size could also fall.
Storm gusts with a speed of 100 kilometers per hour are also possible.
In the late afternoon there was already a heavy thunderstorm on the Danube between Sigmaringen and Riedlingen.
Furthermore, as a precaution, the DWD warns of individual, severe thunderstorms with heavy rain and hail in the south, as well as in the west and north-west from the evening.
However, the high heat load is also widespread.
Extreme weather: first sweltering heat, then heavy rain with hail - federal states break heat records
Update from July 20, 5:01 p.m .:
In several federal states, the highest temperature values since the weather records began were measured on Wednesday.
Bad Mergentheim-Neunkirchen was the leader at 3:30 p.m. with 40.3 degrees, as a spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD) reported.
This also broke the previous record for Baden-Württemberg of 40.2 degrees in Freiburg in August 2003.
This is also the tenth time that a temperature of more than 40 degrees has been measured in Germany since records began - this was last in 2019.
At 3:20 p.m., the provisionally highest state values were 39.8 degrees in Uelzen in Lower Saxony and also 39.8 degrees in Huy-Pabstorf in Saxony-Anhalt – these were heat records for both countries.
"But the values could still be broken by the evening," said DWD spokesman Andreas Friedrich.
Because the temperatures were still rising.
It is also quite possible that the 40 degree mark will also be reached at other weather stations.
Pure heat in Germany: Sufficient fluid intake can now be life-saving.
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
Provisional state records were also recorded with 39.7 degrees in Hamburg Neuwiedenthal and 38.4 degrees in Krambek in Schleswig-Holstein.
The final record values of the day should not be set until after 8 p.m., it said.
Kassenärztechef Gassen assumes many heat deaths in Germany
Update from July 20, 3:40 p.m .:
While there is an exceptional situation throughout Europe due to the weather, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Germany also fears numerous heat deaths.
"One has to assume that not only in southern Europe, but also here, a lot of people will succumb to the heat this summer," said its CEO, Andreas Gassen, to the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
(Thursday edition).
He calls for campaigns with specific tips, for example before news broadcasts, to educate people who are particularly at risk of heat.
"In 2020, in hot August, we already had several thousand additional deaths from the heat.
Unfortunately, these will probably be regular waves if the temperatures go as high as they are now for several days in the future, ”continues the head of the association.
In such a situation, "practical recommendations" would help more than calls for a "federal heat shield."
Update from July 20, 1:20 p.m .:
According to the DWD, the extreme heat in Germany is slowly but surely leading to an extreme storm.
"Overlapping strong thunderstorms" would come from France and Switzerland.
Severe weather alarm in Germany: After the glowing heat, violent thunderstorms come
The west and south-west in particular, where it should be a little less hot today than yesterday, are therefore affected.
Thunderstorms with heavy rain, heavy gusts of wind with up to 100 km/h and "larger hail" are to be expected.
The south of Baden-Württemberg in particular is affected by the weather conditions today.
Up to 30 liters of rain per square meter can be expected in a short time.
On Thursday night, the thunderstorms spread to the northeast, the DWD continued.
The focus of the storm then shifted to North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and North Hesse.
Heavy rain for several hours with up to 60 liters per square meter is possible there.
Overall, the storms, but also the extreme heat, would decrease on Thursday.
Thunderstorms like this one in Stuttgart at the end of June should also hit Baden-Württemberg tonight.
© IMAGO/Arnulf Hettrich
After forest fires and injuries: heat reaches the east - even prisons react
First report from July 20:
Munich – An enormous heat wave is currently rolling across Germany.
Some areas are so badly affected that doctors are now even calling for a “national protection plan”.
While there have already been several injuries from forest fires, the heat is now set to move to the east of the country.
Germany weather: heat reaches the east
The 40-degree mark was broken in North Rhine-Westphalia on Tuesday, in Emsdetten.
The weather extremes were also predominantly to be found in NRW.
As reported by the German Weather Service (DWD), the heat is moving further east today and could also bring 40 degrees Celsius with it.
The weather conditions according to the DWD on Wednesday in Germany:
Temperatures: In the south of Germany up to 35 degrees, in the west it gets even warmer with up to 37 degrees.
Heat poles are in the north-east of the country, where it is between 38 and in places probably up to 40 degrees.
Thunderstorm: Severe weather potential in the extreme west, which spreads to Lower Saxony during the night on Thursday.
Wind: Upward wind around Hamburg and in the Alps possible with gusts of up to 60 km/h.
Relaxation is not in sight until the end of the week, but individual thunderstorms are possible.
According to the DWD, the high heat is slowly moving towards the Balkans.
Forest fires after the heat in Germany: Extreme weather conditions cause several injuries
The strong heat is particularly noticeable in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia through forest fires, as is also the case in the rest of Europe.
As the police and fire brigade announced on Wednesday, some of the injured had to be taken to hospitals during firefighting operations.
However, there is no danger to life for anyone.
A field fire near Alsdorf near Aachen spread to a farm.
In this operation, seven people were mostly slightly injured, two firefighters were hospitalized.
According to the fire brigade in Kronau, Baden-Württemberg, a firefighter suffered smoke poisoning when a field caught fire.
As in other places, the strong wind was the main problem, which only fueled the flames, a fire department spokesman said.
In NRW and Baden-Württemberg, the fire brigades are currently being challenged by field and forest fires.
© Felix Koenig/IMAGO/Agency 54 degrees
Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) warned again on Wednesday about the danger of forest fires.
Heat and extreme weather throughout Germany are the triggers.
"Please keep in mind that even the smallest spark can lead to a fire in the woods and fields, with possibly devastating consequences," says Strobl.
Heat forces action: prisons react to weather in Germany
The enormous heat has also forced Berlin's prisons to react.
As the Senate Justice Department announced on Wednesday, the facilities would offer more drinks, more flexible shower options and relaxed closing times for the detention cells.
Additional powdered drinks are also available for the prisoners.
If temperatures are above 30 degrees Celsius for a longer period of time, there is also an additional nutrient-rich drink such as Ayran every week, according to a spokesman for the authorities.
The service rooms would also be equipped with additional blinds, it is said.
(mef/afp/dpa).
